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Poor battery performance in new Core ix MBPs

M

Maximus434

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 11, 2006
109
0
Anyone else finding their new Core i5/i7 MBPs much poorer in terms of battery life than the previous generation?

I have the base model 2.4Ghz Core i5 15". I just took the power cable out (full battery), have 4 safari windows open, wifi on and screen brightness at 4 below maximum.

The battery meter is showing just under 5 hours life. This is way off the mark with what Apple states AND the previous gen. I know apple numbers are usually slightly ahead of real world figures, but I have a previous gen 15" and remember easily getting more life out of the battery than this.

I am going to try calibrating but surely I'm not alone here?
 
I was just about to start a post addressing the same issue. I have not tested how long the battery *actually* does last , but the read out at full charge hovers around 5 to 5:40 once the power is disconnected. Anybody else tested theirs?

I have the MBP 15 i7 high res, with a 7200
 
whatusername said:
I was just about to start a post addressing the same issue. I have not tested how long the battery *actually* does last , but the read out at full charge hovers around 5 to 5:40 once the power is disconnected. Anybody else tested theirs?

I have the MBP 15 i7 high res, with a 7200
Click to expand...

FWIW, when i was at the Apple store and yanked the cord out of a 15" core i7 2.66 antiglare machine the battery indicator read about 5:40 (this was just with safari open and at half brightness.)
 
Let me guess, the websites you are visiting are swarmed by stupid Flash ads and other flashy manure?
 
Hmm..

Coming from a PC, Im new to this whole 'Battery Life' thing, so when I got mine this morning, I was curious to see how long it lasted. I have the i7 7200HDD HR Glossy 4GB Ram.

I got the computer at 930EST, Booted up within minutes of having it.

Its currently 220, and I have 12% 30 minutes remaining.

During this I did have it on the AC for about 10 minutes, while it updated.

I used PLEX for about an hour, Safari the whole time, Itunes for 30 minutes.

So 5 hours with constant usage, including PLEX (Which really put a hurt on the battery) isnt so bad.
 
Pressure said:
Let me guess, the websites you are visiting are swarmed by stupid Flash ads and other flashy manure?
Click to expand...

Don't take me for a fool.

Browsing the exact same websites on my previous gen 15" yielded higher battery life. Have a look at the apple discussion forums. Lots of people having issue with battery life on these new machines. 5 hours seems to be the norm for most. Something is not right.

EDIT: I'm showing 5:16 left on the battery now - at 79%. Maybe the battery reporter is off on these new machines. I have noticed it updates the time remaining more often than the last gen...
 
Maximus434 said:
EDIT: I'm showing 5:16 left on the battery now - at 79%. Maybe the battery reporter is off on these new machines. I have noticed it updates the time remaining more often than the last gen...
Click to expand...

Did you calibrate once or twice just to be sure the numbers are accurate...
 
My 15" first-gen unibody 2.53GHz MBP lasts 85 minutes. My 13" mid-2009 MBP lasts less than 3 hours on a '7 hours' battery. The 6.5 hours is actually pretty good. Enjoy, it's not worth worrying about. Install a few applications, extend the RAM and you'll never even achieve the current 6.5 hours any more. Still, I wish I've had half that.
 
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/900522/

Something is up.

I took some pix in my thread of battery immediately after pulling cord with safari, mail, pages and other things open and it read 12 hrs

Changed a few things like scrolling opening new windows, opened dashboard then closed it, etc. Stil was showing near 8 hours

Will be testing today at work with just wifi + mail + pages on 13 hour shift so will see what it can do. I manage my screen well and put it to sleep if not the entire computer when not writing for a few minutes, I'm sure apple would consider this normal usage
 
Maximus434 said:
Anyone else finding their new Core i5/i7 MBPs much poorer in terms of battery life than the previous generation?

I have the base model 2.4Ghz Core i5 15". I just took the power cable out (full battery), have 4 safari windows open, wifi on and screen brightness at 4 below maximum.

The battery meter is showing just under 5 hours life. This is way off the mark with what Apple states AND the previous gen. I know apple numbers are usually slightly ahead of real world figures, but I have a previous gen 15" and remember easily getting more life out of the battery than this.

I am going to try calibrating but surely I'm not alone here?
Click to expand...

Did you calibrate the battery first as Apple recommends?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490
 
so from my understanding, you just have to charge the battery fully and then run it down? On the apple link it says "when the battery gets very low, the computer will automatically go to sleep." Then in the tips it says: "When the battery reaches "empty", the computer is forced into sleep mode. The battery actually keeps back a reserve beyond "empty", to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly exhausted, the computer is forced to shut down. "

so I dont understand what we are supposed to do. a) run the battery until the computer goes to sleep or b) change settings so computer doesnt sleep when battery is low and run it until it shuts off by itself. Which one?
 
markp9114 said:
so from my understanding, you just have to charge the battery fully and then run it down? On the apple link it says "when the battery gets very low, the computer will automatically go to sleep." Then in the tips it says: "When the battery reaches "empty", the computer is forced into sleep mode. The battery actually keeps back a reserve beyond "empty", to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly exhausted, the computer is forced to shut down. "

so I dont understand what we are supposed to do. a) run the battery until the computer goes to sleep or b) change settings so computer doesnt sleep when battery is low and run it until it shuts off by itself. Which one?
Click to expand...

It's pretty easy.

Run your computer until it dies(goes to sleep because it simply doesn't have any more power to be used), let it sleep for a goof 4 hours, more if you can, then charge it back up to 100%.

The part about shutting off is that, if you left it sleeping because it is out of battery for too long, even the reserve charge has been used up and it would simply shut down.

That's all it is.
 
markp9114 said:
so from my understanding, you just have to charge the battery fully and then run it down? On the apple link it says "when the battery gets very low, the computer will automatically go to sleep." Then in the tips it says: "When the battery reaches "empty", the computer is forced into sleep mode. The battery actually keeps back a reserve beyond "empty", to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly exhausted, the computer is forced to shut down. "

so I dont understand what we are supposed to do. a) run the battery until the computer goes to sleep or b) change settings so computer doesnt sleep when battery is low and run it until it shuts off by itself. Which one?
Click to expand...

You'll get the pop up message around 8%.

At that point turn brightness to full and quit all applications so the save doesnt have more than finder in it. Around 1-3% as low as you feel comfortable getting it to, do a shut down through your menu at top and that will alleviate it doing any ram backup onto the HD.

From that point, keep it turned off and let it charge for ~4 hours more if you can just to be on safe side but I've never seen it not fully charged after 4 hours on my 13". Havent calibrated the new 15" yet.

Start up like regular and see what results you get.

I've gotten better results from shutting down at low percentage vs letting it go to sleep because it doesnt deplete as much if you have applications open and the forced sleep. If you let it go to forced sleep, I suppose you can let it sit around for a few hours til totally depleted, then hook it in.
 
harmonica01 said:
You'll get the pop up message around 8%.

At that point turn brightness to full and quit all applications so the save doesnt have more than finder in it. Around 1-3% as low as you feel comfortable getting it to, do a shut down through your menu at top and that will alleviate it doing any ram backup onto the HD.

From that point, keep it turned off and let it charge for ~4 hours more if you can just to be on safe side but I've never seen it not fully charged after 4 hours on my 13". Havent calibrated the new 15" yet.

Start up like regular and see what results you get.

I've gotten better results from shutting down at low percentage vs letting it go to sleep because it doesnt deplete as much if you have applications open and the forced sleep. If you let it go to forced sleep, I suppose you can let it sit around for a few hours til totally depleted, then hook it in.
Click to expand...
The sleeping method is the correct way to calibrate a battery, as per Apple's instructions, what you are doing does not calibrate the battery at all.
 
harmonica01 said:
You'll get the pop up message around 8%.

At that point turn brightness to full and quit all applications so the save doesnt have more than finder in it. Around 1-3% as low as you feel comfortable getting it to, do a shut down through your menu at top and that will alleviate it doing any ram backup onto the HD.

From that point, keep it turned off and let it charge for ~4 hours more if you can just to be on safe side but I've never seen it not fully charged after 4 hours on my 13". Havent calibrated the new 15" yet.

Start up like regular and see what results you get.

I've gotten better results from shutting down at low percentage vs letting it go to sleep because it doesnt deplete as much if you have applications open and the forced sleep. If you let it go to forced sleep, I suppose you can let it sit around for a few hours til totally depleted, then hook it in.
Click to expand...

the whole point of calibrating a battery is wearing it down until it is completely empty. once it gets to about 1% is will be forced to go to sleep. at that point, you leave it for at least 5 hours, UNPLUGGED, so that the battery will drain itself and become completely empty. then you plug it it back in again and charge it up (you can use it while its charging)
that is a calibration, it has to be completely empty, thats the whole point
 
Yes I calibrated it correctly, as apple recommends.

Still only 5 hours. These MBPs are worse for battery life than the last gen.
 
Maximus434 said:
Yes I calibrated it correctly, as apple recommends.

Still only 5 hours. These MBPs are worse for battery life than the last gen.
Click to expand...

try using it as they recommend (lightly on battery) for a week or two and see if battery life improves. apparently the last model improved in battery life in the first few weeks...not sure if thats true but i read it somewhere on this forum
 
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